State of the University

When I think about Antioch’s history, I think about a heritage we have, which goes back to our founding in 1853. Antioch has never taken the easy route.

–Dan Kaplan ’76

June 28, 2003
Dan Kaplan '57, Chair,
Antioch University Board of Trustees

As you were coming in to Yellow Springs, perhaps you had a chance to see the new signs on I-70 right before the Route 68 exit. “Antioch University, next exit,” the sign reads.

Does it still sound a bit funny, a bit foreign to hear the words “Antioch” and “University” together? As we come back here to our beloved College, as we celebrate its sesquicentennial, somehow Antioch College has become Antioch University.

What does that mean – “Antioch University”?

How did it happen?

And maybe the most important question for many of us is: Can Antioch College thrive inside Antioch University?

To me, there is no doubt about the answer to that question: it is absolutely “YES.” And I will go one step further, to paraphrase a presidential candidate from a few years back, Antioch College is better off today as a part of Antioch University then it would be on its own.

I know only too well that goes against the grain of some. But give me a chance to share the facts and figures with you. Give me a chance to tell you why Antioch University, rather than leaving Antioch College in the shadows, shines a bright light on our College and its future.

In simple terms, Antioch University is 4,207 students at six campuses. Of that number, 1,182 students are undergraduates, about 600 of whom are at Antioch College. The Antioch University Board of Trustees is the governing body for the entire university. Currently there are 25 trustees of whom 22 – 88%—attended or graduated from Antioch College.

When I think about Antioch’s history, I think about a heritage we have, which goes back to our founding in 1853. Antioch has never taken the easy route. Horace Mann and the founding Board did not choose to build their college in their home state of Massachusetts. Rather they headed for what was then nearly frontier, southwestern Ohio. There were still fresh stumps on the front lawn. The buildings did not have doors, or that first winter heat. And so our heritage has indeed been to take risks and to go places to deliver our Antioch model of education – not in traditional places, or comfortable places.

In a sense we have always been missionaries – believing that our educational model, the Antioch model, was worthy of being shared beyond the boundaries of this campus. The Antioch model places an emphasis on experiential learning, student-centered learning, student-designed programs, with the integration of social values and a social consciousness.

Why should an Antioch education, which we believe so fervently in, be limited to 18 to 22 year olds who have the ability – indeed, the privilege – of being able to spend four years with us? That was the question, framed in that fashion, which was the driver of the expansion of Antioch a generation ago.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Antioch’s leaders believed that the Antioch model of education was both different and important. They realized that there were many people who did not fit the profile of the typical Antioch College student. They were adults. They were working. They had already received their bachelor degrees. And they did not live in Southwestern Ohio.

Antioch began to affiliate and start Antioch centers around the country – indeed around the globe. By the mid-1970s there were some 35 centers, all bearing the Antioch name. Nobody knows the exact number, and that reflects the problem.

Jim Dixon, who was Antioch’s president at the time, has written “There never was a grand plan. The realization that something systematic was going on didn’t arise until the first major crisis in governance occurred.”

Generally, that is not what you want your managers to say about a rapidly growing enterprise.

So clearly, Antioch’s leaders’ hearts were in the right place, but their execution was fatally flawed. Antioch grew too fast, without accountability, without rigorous standards.

I am not going to dwell on the painful process of consolidation that followed. Instead, let me skip to today – an Antioch with six strong campuses and more than 4,200 students. You would be proud of the campuses that bear the Antioch name. They are doing good work. They are making a difference – in their communities and in their students’ lives. These campuses all carry the Antioch DNA.

For instance, Antioch University Seattle has been awarded a $3 million grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to develop a program in Washington State to improve high school retention and college access for Native American youth. In the past two years, Antioch has begun a University-wide PhD program in Leadership and Change. One of our first faculty appointments is Dr. Peter Vaill, who many consider to be in the top 10 organizational development specialists. These are only a couple of examples.

But I assure you the work being done is solid, academically challenging work. You do not need to take my word for it. Outside evaluators have consistently lauded the programs at Antioch’s campuses. State Department of Education Review Teams in Ohio (for McGregor), California, Washington and New Hampshire – all have had laudatory praise for Antioch’s master’s level education programs. The American Psychological Association (the APA) gave Antioch New England’s doctoral program seven-year approval – an almost unprecedented accreditation award.

Over the past few years, I have had the chance to see in action the work of students and faculty at each of Antioch’s campuses. Let me tell you that when you see it, you know that the work and people are consistent with Antioch values and Antioch quality. The students may not be 20 years old, but Antioch is changing the lives of adult students – just like it did for you and me.

Antioch Endowment Chart

I have been to a number of Antioch graduations. Overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, I watched Antiochians getting their diplomas a couple of years ago. Their tradition is that each student can say a few words. I recall many of their words, but perhaps most touching was a Hispanic student thanking her family in Spanish and then she asked them to stand up. One whole row of people – there must have been 20 – stood up.

Last spring in Keene, New Hampshire, I watched as more than 200 graduate degrees were handed out. I remember one teenager standing in the aisle with a sign that read “Way To Go Grammy!”

Whether in Keene, or Seattle, or Los Angeles – they may not look or sound like the students here in Yellow Springs, but they are Antiochians. At the conclusion of their graduations, Horace Mann is quoted as he has been at every Antioch graduation – here and at every campus.

Let me tell you one story. It is about Lillian Lovelace, who is a trustee emeritus. She has been a wonderful trustee and we are indebted to her. Lillian came to Yellow Springs in the late 1940s, but she did not graduate. She left, went to California, married, raised a family. Years later she returned to Antioch to complete her degree. But this time the Antioch she returned to was in Santa Barbara. She told me recently that when she went to the campus in Santa Barbara what was striking to her was that “they were speaking my language – just as they had years ago in Yellow Springs.”

At the center of Antioch University, the touchstone for every campus, is Antioch College. There is no Antioch without it and everyone in the University knows that. Everyone in the University knows that in some ways they are the planets and the College is the sun. Every member of the Antioch University family wants the College to be thriving, to be vital, to be here in another 150 years. We live in a changing world and the future often looks troubling – at home and internationally. As Lauren Pope wrote in his book Colleges that Change Lives, “There is no college or university in the country that makes a more profound difference in a young person’s life, or that creates more effective adults.” That statement alone is a case for why Antioch College must continue in the 21st century.

Perhaps some of you are familiar with the Antioch Independence Fund. I hope that I have already addressed some of the issues which they have brought up – about the centrality of Antioch College within Antioch University. But I think I also need to set the record straight with some facts. For the leadership of the AIF is, in fact, having the opposite effect on Antioch College that they intend.

The leadership of the AIF is doing a grave disservice to the students of Antioch College. Each day that they distort facts, or spread falsehoods, they harm the students – this generation of you and me.

The Facts:

1) The AIF has raised $1 million. They say they will release that money when Antioch is legally separated from the rest of the University.

2) But that would be a lousy idea, for the University’s other campuses each year provide more than $1.5 million in direct subsidies to the College. This number is not conjecture, or hearsay. It is a fact which has been verified by outside auditors – and any member of the Antioch community is welcome to verify it.

3) During the years that the AIF was raising $1 million, Antioch’s endowment has nearly tripled – despite stock market setbacks. This is by and large due to gifts from the Board of Trustees of nearly $24 million in the past three years.

4) Last year, 5,000 people – alumni, students, parents, trustees, and friends – made contributions to Antioch College.

5) In the fall of this year, in time for our sesquicentennial, we will be announcing a substantial capital campaign to build the College’s infrastructure and endowment.

Antioch College students need support today. So while we are busy raising money and our president is busy working on the issues that are critical to the College, the AIF’s leaders have raised and are holding onto $1 million. That is $1 million which cannot be used to do the critically-important things the College’s students need today: wiring dorm rooms for Internet access, hiring another professor, fixing a leaky roof in the Union building.

Antioch College is not out of the woods. These are difficult times for all small private liberal arts colleges. There are 1,600 private liberal arts colleges in the United States and all but the top tier — perhaps 10% — are struggling. We are not alone, but by raising money and taking the issues head on, the Board of Trustees is committed to another 150 years for Antioch College.

Antioch University today is an exciting place. We remain at the forefront of higher education in America. Our heritage is one of change, of doing good work. I have no doubt that Arthur Morgan would be proud of Antioch, its students, its faculty, its place on the landscape of American higher education. I have no doubt that Horace Mann would be proud that as an institution, Antioch is winning victories for humanity – whether it is in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Keene, New Hampshire – or right here in Yellow Springs at Antioch College.

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